Two More Advocates!

Friday, December 23, 2011

Happy
Holidays! I hope you’re reading this from a comfy couch at home or somewhere
pleasant on vacation. If you’re reading from your work station, don’t feel
alone! It’s ok, because our Partnership office is open too. It feels good to
be with my work family, though I’m missing two individuals in particular today-
Joseph and Son.

Joseph and Son
were the Partnership’s undergraduate interns during this past fall semester.
They completed their service last week. Joseph, a student in his senior year
came to us via the Communication Studies department in hopes of obtaining
communications experience. Son arrived from the university’s prestigious Health
Science department, seeking health policy research experience for his final
semester. I am grateful to them both for all their help these past few
months. In addition to all their internship duties, too countless to name, Son
and Joseph were key to the success of our awards event for Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren and assisted with the Partnership’s contribution towards the
recently published Santa Clara County Vietnamese Health Assessment.

Over the
summer, on this blog I posted a report written by another former intern Steve Yang, about
community health centers. This gave me the
idea to invite Joseph and Son to write an entry for the blog. Their creative
task: to share something they’ve learned during their time here at the
Partnership. I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to work
alongside these star students; their intellectual curiosity and willingness to
learn is inspiring. We are very fortunate to have them as the next generation
of health care advocates.

Here are their
entries:

Joseph
BartonCommunication Studies, San Jose State
University

I just had the most amazingly eye-opening semester this past fall.
My name is Joseph Barton and I’m a Communication Studies senior at San Jose
State University who recently completed a very cool internship at Community
Health Partnership. I hate to admit it, as I am in my thirties and have voted
regularly since I was eighteen, but I knew little about our existing health care
system and the upcoming reforms prior to this semester. Not anymore! The team
at CHP took a student looking to possibly get into public relations or maybe
marketing, and turned him into someone who actively supports and advocates for
the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and would now love to work in health care. I’ve
learned that community health centers (CHCs) are the backbone of health care in
our country today, and I’m very proud to have been involved with CHP. I think
everyone who puts their heart and soul into working for a community health
center should be extremely proud, too! You guys have gotten so good at doing
outreach, connecting people with necessary services, providing care for those
who need it most, and being such a valued and important piece of society, that
our country’s leaders are basically taking what you’ve done and expanding it to
millions of people with the ACA…Bravo!

There is obviously still much work to be done, as the changes that
lie ahead won’t necessarily be easy. But I believe the Supreme Court will uphold
the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s
Individual Mandate and our country will continue in the right direction and
ultimately be better equipped to provide the quality health care that everyone
deserves. I’m looking to be a part of that now, for sure! But no matter where
my career takes me in the future, I will now always vote and advocate as someone
now hooked… my eyes are wide open and I’ll forever be a proud supporter of CHCs!

Son PhanHealth Science, San Jose
State University

Before I took
this internship, I didn’t really see community health centers (CHCs) as places
that provided comprehensive and effective care. I always thought it was much
better to just go to a hospital or a local doctor’s office to receive care. This
is due to the fact that CHCs are located in low-income areas and I felt like
they were not as equipped to take care of me. After being an intern at Community
Health Partnership, my whole view has changed and I recognize how important CHCs
are to the health of our whole nation.

CHCs provide
comprehensive and preventative care. This is important because, as proven in
several studies, the presence of a community health center in a region has shown
to reduce the number of emergency room visits and long-term chronic health
problems. If those two problems are reduced, it will save the U.S. a lot of
money that we can spend on other things such as education. In fact, about $122
billion in total health care costs would be saved between 2010 and 2015 by CHC’s
because of their ability to help reduce costly care such as emergency room
visits and their ability to provide care at lower costs. Additionally, with the
passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, it is expected that
32 million more Americans will be provided with health insurance. That is why
CHCs play a major role in helping to deliver more efficient care for society by
taking on some of the newly insured patients.

Community
health centers are important as we move forward with healthcare reform. If we
want to provide efficient and quality care for every single individual, CHCs
must be in the equation. They provide quality care that could prevent future
health problems. Best of all, they are able to do this at a much lower cost. We
must continue to provide funding to community health centers and give them the
necessary resources to succeed.